Queensland Murderer, Child Rapist Jailed for Life

A VIOLENT career criminal who used bedding to murder a Brisbane mother then raped her daughter has been jailed for at least 25 years.

In the early hours of August 26, 2014, Jacob Michael Smith attacked the mother as she slept on a mattress alongside her two ill daughters in the living room of their home.

The makeshift bedding was so they could lay and watch TV as they dealt with gastro.

Smith crept behind the mother and attacked, using a white sheet to kill her. He smothered and strangled the mother, who can’t be identified, then pulled the arms of her 12-year-old daughter to wake her up and told her she was going to become a woman.

He took the girl to her mother’s bed and raped her as her younger sister slept beside their murdered mum.

After, Smith told the girl that she could complain about the abuse to her mother.

At the time of the rape and murder, Smith was on bail and had only been out of jail for a year and six months after serving 10 years and 10 months for a prison killing.

The 41-year-old initially fought charges including murder, rape, and attempted rape at his trial but he ended up pleading guilty to all charges except murder, for which he was later found guilty.

“You mouth regret but you demonstrate no remorse,” Justice Martin Daubney said in the Brisbane Supreme Court on Thursday.

During sentencing, the court heard Smith had a violent history and had been in and out of jail since he was 18.

In May 2002, while aged 26, he was sentenced over the prison killing and a string of armed robberies, in which he stole a total of $36,000. “You have spent a lot of your life in jail, you are going to spend a lot more of your life in jail,” Justice Martin Daubney said.

The family of Smith’s victims, including the mother’s children, gave statements to the court.

“I detach myself from people because I’m too scared of them leaving me,” one said.

“I hate loving my boyfriend because I’m scared he’s going to die.”

The usual non-parole period for murder is 20 years but given the nature of Smith’s crimes and his “appalling” history, Justice Daubney extended that to 25.

With time spent in custody, Smith will first be eligible for release on August 28, 2039.